On the meaning of computer models of robot-environment interaction

The “meaning” of a computer model — a computer simulation — of some physical system is an ill-defined concept, and clearly it would strengthen any hypotheses based on such models if some formal model verification was possible. In this paper we present experiments on computer modelling of mobile robot operation, in which the interaction of a Scitos G5 mobile robot with a carefully chosen environment is modelled. The experimental setup chosen was such that we could determine from theoretical considerations what the model should be. The comparison between the actually obtained computer model and the theoretically correct solution demonstrates that in the experiments conducted the obtained models are “correct”.